International Review of Educational Cinematography (Jan-Dec 1934)

THE USE OF THE CINEMA IN PRIMARY TEACHING 439 ing motion picture. The student-teachers ought to learn how to use the projecting machine, both silent and sound, how to look after it, take it to pieces, remount it, oil it, etc. Teachers ought to learn how to handle film without damaging it, to repair it, clean it with alcohol, and make joins in it. All this knowledge can be obtained in a few lessons from a technician. The knowledge of the precautions to be taken for reduced size film and sub-standard projectors will have the effect of diminishing the damage to film and apparatus. The film will have a longer life. A capacity to handle film would allow teachers a greater liberty of spirit in their pedagogic work. It is useful, again, to warn teachers against any exaggerated use of the motion picture in class-rooms. A type or model lesson in class-room with a projector will show them the best method to follow in a process which is really quite simple. Collaboration in the Production of Didactic Films. — The production of a teaching film may be divided into two stages : preparation and realization. Preparation. — It is not enough to draw our information from official curricula to form a rationally compiled list of films. Even in the restricted field of primary instruction, it is advisable to plan for three categories of films, three different categories, corresponding to the three principal grades of primary studies, elementary courses, middle courses and superior courses The film is like the book. The text-books used by children of from seven to eight years are different from those of a few years older. Therefore we do not want any " omnibus " kind of film, good for all, which the same pupils would see year after year, and which by trying to suit everybody would be useful for no one. On the contrary, one must not be afraid of creating sub-divisions. They correspond to the necessities set forth in the official curricula. This first specialization of films allows us to study thenijbetter, to render them more adapted to each individual subject, and to fit them for specially defined functions. Every lesson must in general be accompanied by film illustration, even if this be of a brief nature. It may happen sometimes that the film will prove a useless form of comment lantern slides being sufficient to supply the documentaton required. In order to make a wise choice of a teaching film, it is first of all necessary to define the exact task which the picture has in the lesson to be given. This presupposes an exhaustive study of the lesson and a comparative examination of the utility of slides and motion pictures for illustrating it. All these things must be taken into consideration in preparing the scenes of a picture. Each scene must be described with the greatest precision, pictorial sense, knowledge of shooting angles, running time, etc. At all times, the author of the film, the real producer, must refer to the technique of his profession of pedagogue just as the professional producer refers to his. No detail is superfluous in this connection. This study, this production is a lengthy and difficult matter, and this particularly because the finished picture must have a certain unity and a certain rhythm. The author of the film can only be a professional teacher, but he must also have a proper practical and theoretical knowledge of cinema technique. Making the Film. — It is at this point that the cinematographic work strictly speaking begins, and this is the most difficult part of the task. However precise and detailed the author's indications are, the producer can only make a visual adaptation of them. To adapt is always more or less to betray the sense of the original, in the cinema as in literature. The author's expressions and intentions cannot be strictly respected, and the fact that the producer and adapter have great talent does not alter the fact. Book and film are not without their